Konoha Romances
by Ginnie-p
Summary: Naruto discovers something on his birthday that nearly destroys him. It is then he sees something he never did before.


Chapter 1

When you know a girl for almost your whole life, you get attatched. You cant resist, it just happens. You feel love for her and you can't stop it, for who can stop natural feelings? Love is one of the hardest things to avoid. You don't pick who you love, it comes in a flash before you know what even hit you. But maybe that's what makes love so special, the fact that you can't predict when your heart will be filled with joy...or be crushed with pain. Love has two sides to it. On one hand, you have happy carefree love. The love that keeps you going all day and makes you feel light as a feather just to think about this person. But then there's painful love, the side where rejection and betrayal hides out.

Uzumaki Naruto, 18 years of age today, a Jounin as of last year, and a heavy lover of ramen noodles. Yes this blonde headed boy was finally living his dreams. He had great friends, lots of talent, a high rank in ninja, and his youth was no where near its end. So what's the problem? Girls, isn't it always? 18 and the girl he had a crush on since he was very little still had no feelings for him. In truth, it's hard to make someone feel the same way that you do for them. But rejection was something he was used to. Being the holder of the nine tail was a heavy burdon that not many could have taken. People looked at him with hatred, fear, disgust. But he was 18 now, and things were different. After he became a ninja for Konoha, people began to forget about the demon within, afterall, none of the children in Konoha knew about the fact that the nine tail had to be sealed within Naruto's body. This ensured a better future for him, when all the people in the generation who saw the nine tails forgot or were gone, it would be like the problem was never there.

Earlier that morning, Naruto had recieved a letter. It had slipped under the door as he ate his normal breakfast of miso ramen. But by the time he had gotten to the door, the person who had done it, was nowhere in sight. Sighing, he opened the envelope, shredding the paper when he couldn't open it properly, and pulled out a small piece of white paper. '7 P.M. The old training spot.' Of course he knew what the letter referred to right away, the place where Kakashi had tested them to see if they were qualified to become genin. With a little smile he remembered being tied to that log when Sasuke and Sakura had shared their food with him after years of nothing but cold treatment. But this raised a question, why did they want to meet there, and who had sent it? His first thought was Sasuke, maybe he wanted to fight. Whatever the case, he would be there without fail. If a battle was what Sasuke wanted, then so be it. He had never backed down from a fight since Sasuke had called him a scaredy cat.

He threw the letter onto the table in his small apartment kitchen and sat down to finish his ramen. A slight frown crossed his face as he remembered the day, "Happy birthday...Naruto." No one had ever aknowledged his birthday that he could remember. There was the one time that Iruka had taken him for a bowl of ramen but that was just a small thing. Naruto wasn't even sure if anybody knew when his birthday was, no one had ever asked. October 10th, the day he always felt like he had no one at all, no family. He often wondered how he ever survived those years without anybody to care for him, love him, tell him he was just as good as everybody else. Instead he grew up with hatred, cold stares, nothing but put downs. But he always hid them deep within himself and stayed optimistic, and if it wasn't for that, he would have ended up as an empty shell with no will to live.

The idea of 'her' had kept him going for the last few years. The thought that maybe the two of them could be together. That she could love him as he loved her. To touch her and know that she was his, to hold her, kiss her. The fact that she had been made fun of a lot as a child only made him love her more, to know that she had experienced the pain of ridicule as he did. The way her hair blew in the wind, how the sun always shon on her face perfectly as she smiled almost like the sun shon just because she smiled, those green liquid pools that you could stare into for hours, and the body of a strong yet feminine woman. All of these were what he saw the moment he looked at her everyday. "Sakura..." If it wasn't for Sasuke, he thought she could have come to love him, but she loved Sasuke. There was always hope, Sasuke had never done anything to hint that maybe he liked her back.

When it was 5 minutes to 7, Naruto left his small apartment home to go see this mystery person. He didnt know how to feel about it, scared or excited. His heart thudded, what if Sakura sent him this? A date maybe? The idea made his stomach flutter with nerves.A million people flew through his mind, Kakashi-sensei , Sakura, Sasuke, Ero-senin, Tsunade, Fuzzy Eyebrows, Thick Eyebrow-sensei, Neji, Tenten, the list goes on.

When he spotted the training spot he saw that no one was there. Crossing his arms, he frowned, walking to the middle of the field. If these people thought that he was stupid enough to let his guard down, they were mistaken. Every sense was tingling, his nerves on their guard. There was no way this challenge could have been issued from Sasuke, he was always on time for everything. Early infact. No, this was the work of another ninja, but who? Who did Naruto know that was always late... As soon as it hit him, so did the fist of the ninja he had been waiting for. Naruto faded fast, and the last thing he saw was a bunch of silver shiny hair.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" he woke up screaming. 'Where am I?...' the boy thought to himself. It was dark all around and silent, too silent. The room he was in was small, barely big enough to fit him and the mischelanious items that he could feel in the darkness as he searched. 'Someone kidnapped me!' his fingers searched for a door. 'Wait...if I have been kidnapped, why are my hands not bound? Why can I move freely?' Having been kidnapped before in all sorts of ways, he knew the one thing almost all of them had in common, some kind of way of containing him. What if he walked outside only to be jumped, a trap perhaps? Searching his pockets, he found his kunai pouch, but no luck, they had been removed. The only way of escape, would be to create an entrance so distracting, that the attackers would become startled, giving him the advantage. Taking a deep breath, he tightened his Konoha head protector, some blonde hair falling over it into his blue eyes.

He was shaking slightly, hand cautiously set over the door handle. 'I can do this, you can do this Naruto, just keep calm...' Gently the door knob turned in his hand. 'Just pull it open and run, easy, basic, crude, effective.' With a final deep breath, he flung the door open and flew out of the room.

"SUPRISE!"

"Wah!!!" falling to the ground, he scurried back to the closet and closed the door forcefully. 'What was that?...' His heart was pounding hard in his chest, the beating seemed to echo through the small closet. 'Now what?' Naruto's brilliant blue eyes closed as he leaned against the door, trying to relax, when the door disapeared behind him, leaving him to fall to the floor.

"What are you doing baka?" a farmiliar female voice rung out.

"Sakura-Chan?" Green eyes looked down on him, almost completely covered by pink hair.

"Happy Birthday Naruto!" Sung out several voices.

Blushing, he stood up and waved awkwardly. 'My god am I stupid...' the room was full with friends, all with warm smiles. He recognized the building he was in now, the training dojo where he had often come as a child to practice his kunai throwing skills. Except it was different now, there was the fragrance of ramen instead of the usual sweat and blood, and there were decorative orange and red streamers hanging from the ceiling, along with a 'Happy Birthday' sign. "I must be dreaming..." he said in suprise and aw, on the brink of tears but hid it well.

Sakura quickly hugged him, leaving a warm fuzzy feeling all over his skin. "You never told us when your birthday was so we never knew, so we asked Hokage-Sama and she had your ninja file with your birthday listed." He smiled at her, the tears coming closer.

"This is the first birthday party ive ever had..." he sniffed and looked around at everyone watching him.

"Don't get so emotional on us Naruto!" Kiba patted his shoulder warmly, "It's only just begun and you're already sniveling like a little girl."

Blushing, Naruto smiled, "What are you talking about? I'm fine, just something in my eye. That closet was full of dust!" It was the best he could think of under such short notice and no one seemed to believe him, but no one questioned him either.

"Happy Birthday...Naruto-kun." came a soft voice from behind.

A warm smile spread over his face when he saw that it was Hinata. She was no longer a small non threatening girl. Her dark blue hair now fell over her shoulders and her almost pupiless eyes were narrow with maturity, but also adorned a beautiful sparkle unmatched by most. "Thank you Hinata." Enveloping her in his arms, he hugged her closely and a strong red crossed her cheeks.

"Your welcome Naruto-Kun." shyly she replied as he let go of her. How blind he was to not see that this girl was interested in him and had been for many years. She loved him without falter and every moment she spent with him was a fumble of words and the silence of words she could not speak. 'I love you, Naruto.' she longed to tell him. Why did he not like her? Her heart craved his love but it was never returned to her. As Naruto excused himself, Hinata ventured over to Neji and struck up a conversation. How she wished she could do the same with Naruto.

The moon was up high in the sky before people started to leave the party. Ninjas have tight schedules and so must be up early. Naruto stood by the door as people left, Rock Lee, Hinata, Neji, Gai, Kakashi, almost everyone in the villiage that he knew. Thanking them, he felt a love he had never known before, the love of true friends who care. Nothing in this world could faze him on this night, nothing. 'Take your best shot world! I dare you, you can't put me down on this day!' Snickering, he wandered off to the closet he had been locked in earlier. "You leaving soon Naruto?" Iruka called from the doorway.

"Yeah! Just gotta grab my jacket, I'll talk to you tomorrow Iruka-Sensei."

"Alright, bye Naruto! And stop calling me your sensei! You out rank me!" Iruka strolled out the front doors and into the darkness with a smile on his face.

Laughing, Naruto was smiling as well, feeling like he was flying over the clouds. With a click, the door opened to the closet and a silent but audible creak filled the building as his heart tore into a million pieces. The pieces fell like shards of glass into the pits of his stomach, and he was sure he would die right then. This pain was much more intense then if a kunai had hit him in the heart. At least if that had happened, he would die and it would go away. Turning his head away, he walked out of that building, heart left behind, and happiness overtaken by extreme depression. Sakura and Sasuke stared as he left, from inside the closet where he had just caught them kissing in ways that he wanted to do to her.

_Et Voila! I wrote this so long ago but i was always afraid to post it haha. I meant to a long time ago, i even have the second chapter written, i just dont like it so i gotta like...rewrite a bunch. so ya, here is the first chapter to anything ive posted in probly a year or so. And just so u kno, no i dont have ABC check haha, so please ignore all spelling errors! But yes, guess i should get on fixing my next chapter, that is if u want me to post it at all! Lol, we shall see i suppose. Till then,_

_Sukida, Jenn_


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